The present invention relates to heavy duty industrial trailers and in particular to large front loading flat bed trailers.
Transporting very large equipment such as earthmoving equipment used on mine sites, particularly large tracked vehicles require specially designed large flat bed trailers. Conventional large rear loading trailers have a large number of wheels at their rear ends. Because of the large number of wheels, their diameter can be relatively small to facilitate loading over the wheels. However, the tip of the loading deck is still usually high enough off the ground to make loading of some large vehicles difficult. Large front loading trailers are also known. These trailers typically have a small number of large wheels located at their rear ends, a large flat bed and have liftable front ends. The liftable front ends are designed to be lowered to engage the ground so as to present a minimal step or ramp up on to the trailer bed for loading.
Special hitch arrangements, referred to as gooseneck hitches have been developed to allow lifting and lowering of such trailer ends. These hitch assemblies are designed so that the gooseneck can be removed from the trailer leaving the front end clear for loading.
Large front loading flat bed trailers are typically used on mine sites which are often in remote locations. The size of these trailers can create practical difficulties. For instance transportation of the trailers themselves over large distances presents problems due to their size and weight.
It is an object of the invention to overcome or at least ameliorate the problems associated with large front loading flat bed trailers.
According to the invention there is provided a modular front loadable low loader trailer for transporting large vehicles comprising:
a rear module for supporting ground engaging wheels, the rear module having a rear cross-member;
a front cross-member module; and
a pair of deck modules, each removably connected between the front and rear cross-member modules,
wherein each of the modules are separable for transport.
Preferably the trailer further comprises a plurality of pin joints between adjacent modules.
Preferably each pin joint comprises:
at least two parallel spaced apart plates depending from a first side of the joint;
at least one plate depending from a second side of the joint; and
at least one removable pin,
wherein, when the trailer is assembled, the plates are interleaved and define a hole extending through all of the plates, the hole receiving the pin so as to removably connect adjacent modules.
Preferably the pins are arranged in vertically spaced apart pairs.
Preferably the front cross-member module is adapted to receive a removable gooseneck assembly for lifting and towing.
In one preferred form of the invention, the rear module is itself modular, comprising two removably connected modules. The two modules of the rear module are: a rear axle module for supporting ground engaging wheels; and a rear cross-member module removably connected to the rear axle module.
A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described in some further detail with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying figures. This embodiment is illustrative, and is not meant to be restrictive of the scope of the invention.